Miles of Ink
by Animbaro
Summary: A blackout removes the thin wall between two strangers, bringing them together as they find luminosity and hope in each other. One Shot for Etched in Ink Fest


**Etched In Ink Fest**

**Miles of Ink**

**Thanks to Lemmonpie for beta'ing. :)**

**Song that inspired this one shot: Ghost Tonight by Chairlift **

**Link: http : / / www . youtube . com / watch?v = LBK56_-A jX0 (remove the spaces)**

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><p>Three days before she heard him, she saw him.<p>

"I mean, we all miss you, Bella." Her mother continued her tirade. She was tired of her only child living across the country from her, in her eyes there was nothing she couldn't want which couldn't be found in Forks. In the back of her mind was the worrying thought, that her daughter was running away, and she most feared that it might be from her own family.

"I do too, mom, but I need this. And you've seen it now," she was referring to sightseeing which she had reluctantly dragged her mother to the previous day; in a last bid to convince her that she needed the city. "It's great and I can learn so much here." _And get away from you_, she added silently in her head. She hoped for herself that the move she had made to New York was brave and not incredibly foolish, which was what her family thought.

Just as Bella was fumbling through her purse to retrieve her key the door she heard footsteps walking towards her. It was the first time she had seen him, but not the first for him. He walked past them and to his door and what he thought would be a glance at his neighbor became much more.

Edward had seen her sporadically in the month that she had lived there. Never did he approach her though, he just watched.

Their expressions were exactly what he expected, well the woman he assumed to be his neighbor's mother had _that_ expression, a slightly shocked, a hint of judgment and a whole lot of confusion with a sprinkle of fear.

The girl on the other hand, she didn't look where he expected her to look. No, her eyes met his boldly after hastily looking downwards at the key while she put it in the keyhole. For just a second he finally got a clear look at her, but it was too quick and he wanted more.

The door to the apartment was quickly opened and they hastily went in. Edward walked into his apartment; before he could close his door he heard them.

It was not only one person's fault that the walls were so thin, lack of maintenance and general up keep had made it impossible for any noise in an apartment not to be heard in the one next to it. So the words were easy to distinguish as they filtered through.

"_...didn't say anything about the neighbors, Bella." _It was the girl's mother who spoke in what could only be called a judgmental tone.

"_I haven't actually seen any of the neighbors until now, mom." _ Her voice was softer and it sounded slightly like she was trying to calm her mother down.

"_And even if I had seen that particular neighbor before. I wouldn't have told you_," Bella thought to herself.

"_Well your father__and I just worry about you. You're all alone in this city and I don't know how safe the neighborhood is." _Her voice had risen and Edward heard the worry become more evident.

"_Mom, I'm sure it's perfectly safe. I've got an alarm..."_ Bella said lamely.

"_It's just that with some people like_ that man_, you can never be too sure." _ He wasn't surprised with the words he heard, but they did have an effect on him. He could have just put music on to drown out their voices. But curiosity got the best of him. He wanted to know what the girl thought of him, _Bella_.

He heard nothing for about a minute, expecting the conversation to be over, he moved slightly away from the wall the two apartments shared.

"_You're wrong." _It was Bella and he could hear her sigh loudly. She had her back to her mother, putting away the few groceries they had bought. The few items Renee hadn't managed to turn her nose up at, criticizing that much better ones could easily be found in Forks. Bella could never say that her mother never wanted her to succeed, but crucially it had to be in Renee's terms, acceptable terms that her small family could understand.

"_I'm just looking out for you. Some of those people are involved in drugs and God knows what else. You don't know what sort of __people h__e could invite into the building. And right next door to you Bella!" _she insisted.

"_Mom, you don't even know him." _Bella hastily retorted at her mother's assumption.

"_Do you?"_

She didn't know him, her mother was right, but she wasn't going to be as judgmental as Renee was. That she had always promised herself, ever since she was a little girl. She had had enough of all of that.

The next day Bella had returned home after following her mother to the airport and after one last attempt to convince her daughter to give up New York before she had to get on her plane.

It was tiring dealing with her mother's insistence; Bella had forgotten how they all use to treat her just like a child. She asked herself how she ever put up with it.

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><p>As she entered what she hoped to be her quiet apartment for an early night two weeks later she heard him. The walls were nearly shaking with the force of the two people arguing.<p>

"_You never fucking listen!"_

"_Listen? To __what, Edward? Your unreal__istic daydreams?" _Part of Bella knew she had no right to listen to this personal conversation, but she thought she didn't have much choice.

"_Unrealistic or not, they're still mine!__"_The one she assumed to be Edward replied.

"_I've had enough of this. You're squandering away your life."_

"_That's what you think?"_

"_How can you even live here? It's horrendous. You have so much potential son, all wasted here."_

"_I did Harvard didn't I? Four years of it. I'm not doing anything more for you!"_

"_Harvard was for you own good. You were supposed to come here for a year and make sure Cullen Internationals did well in New York. Not abandon it."_

"_It seems to be doing well without me."_

"_But it can do better with you, it your destiny. My legacy." _The man's voice took a different tone as he said these words, he sounded almost patronizing. Carlisle tried another tactic; he knew that the only thing Edward took remotely seriously was his mother, family obligations, well, _some_ family obligations and his writing, Carlisle thought dismissively.

"_Cut the legacy crap dad-" _Edward rolled his eyes at the words he had heard his father use a million times before to make him do something he didn't want to do.

"_If your mother could see you now. What you've done to yourself, your body."_

"_Mom would have loved it. She wanted them too and you know it!" _The tone of his voice wavered and Bella concluded that the topic of his mother was a raw nerve. She thought he sounded more hurt than angry.

"_Don't talk about things you know nothing about," _his father's voice was lowered, threatening.

"_Get out!"_, Edward had had enough, too many years had he heard his father try to dismiss the things he knew for sure about his mom.

"_With pleasure." _Carlisle spat back, sick of his son's insolence. He knew he had to return back to Chicago knowing that all the effort he had put into his son had been wasted and the thought left him empty.

"_Get the fuck out!" _The arrogance of his father tone set Edward off even more.

The door slammed loudly, probably enough for the entire hallway to hear, but Edward couldn't care less. Sighing, he leaned against the wall and tried not to remember the words his mother had spoken so many years before. He knew she had been right even as a small boy and she was right now. He would call his father and try to apologize, if only for the memory of the dead.

On the other side of that wall, Bella wondered if what she had just heard was a regular occurrence. If it was, she knew she had to make sure to stay out of this man's way when it did. She couldn't be too careful.

That one time she had caught a glimpse of him, she couldn't help admiring him, even though Renee was right there. He was handsome, that was sure, but he was more than that, he was _sexy_. In her life there hadn't been many men in her proximity which she could call that. Though of course Edward was mostly likely also trouble, though a sweet, sexy and mysterious version of trouble, he was trouble none the less. So she shook her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts of his copper hair, chiseled face and many tattoos.

The following weeks the two neighbors heard more of each other.

Edward discovered Bella was a fan of Madonna. Describing her as a fan was probably not enough thought Edward, obsessed was a better description. He had heard her sing all her songs and had also disturbingly learnt some of the lyrics to a few; she had a habit of playing certain songs over and over without seemingly getting sick of them. She would also sing them, when she cleaned most likely as he would her singing over the noise of the vacuum cleaner.

Bella also discovered Edward's musical preferences and it was somewhat educational, she heard all manner of songs, from The Beatles to strange noisy rock songs which she could barely hear the lyrics to. He also sang, but he would sometimes add words to the songs making them his own, that was what Bella preferred most of all.

Neither one of them saw anything of each other, since that day when they had caught a fleeting glimpse of one another in the hallway. They became participants in the others life without knowing, live ghosts keeping each other company through the noises of their living.

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><p>There was blackout at 9.30 on a Sunday, Bella was sitting in her living room watching one of many boring reality TV shows, waiting until she felt tired enough to go to sleep. Getting up from the sofa virtually blind, as it took awhile for her eyes go get use to the darkness, she looked out of the window. But instead of seeing the familiar city lights she only saw darkness, hearing the voice below express their annoyance at what she assumed to be a city wide blackout. She took her phone out for some light, looking online she saw people already complaining about it on the various social networks.<p>

As she read people's opinions as to what the cause might have been, she heard a loud knock coming from the direction of her front door. Not knowing whether to ignore it or not, she froze, but it occurred again, louder this time.

"Hello? Are you ok?" He called. She recognized his voice immediately. It was Edward. Opening the door she was greeted by mostly darkness and Edward holding a small flashlight, the only light in the pitch black hallway.

"I just wanted to see if you were alright?" he asked smiling back at her.

The sight in front of her didn't allow her to respond normally to his question, he was shirtless, only in jeans with several rips and holes in them. But that wasn't what caused her speechlessness; it was his body, aesthetically perfect and with a myriad of tattoos covering them. Both of his arms had full sleeves as well as most of his chest only a few places were not covered in the miles of ink that adorned his body.

"Oh, I'm alright, thanks." Looking down she noticed that on the left side of his body, a tattoo continued downwards and the edge of his jeans covered some of it. She wanted to see where the ink led.

"Have you got a flashlight or something?" His voice dragged her eyes to his and away from where she was ogling him. He didn't want to call the girl out on her undisguised appreciation of his body, so he allowed himself to appreciate her in return

"No, I probably should have bought one. Does this happen often?" She asked him.

"City wide, no, but in this building unfortunately it does happen often."

"Well I'll have to invest then," she responded smiling.

It wasn't what she said that annoyed Edward but the way she had said it. Hearing business jargon only reminded him of the disappointed family he had left behind in Chicago. Seeing the smile falter on the beautiful girl in front of him, he felt guilty.

"Here, use mine," he offered her the flashlight he had.

"Oh, no, I couldn't," she said shaking her head.

She couldn't help but notice the light coming from the door to her left, which was wide open.

"Did you not get affected by the blackout?" she asked confused.

"No I did. But I'm just prepared." His words confused her further. Making his smile wider, it only made him more handsome, Bella thought. "Come, I'll show you," he offered her his smile boyish.

"Ok, hang on." grabbing her keys she locked her door and walked into Edward's apartment.

"Wow," she whispered as she took a step inside.

"I might have overdone it a bit. But I don't like working in the dark, I was on a bit of a roll and couldn't stop writing."

The apartment was the same size as hers exactly but there was a major difference, the way it was decorated. While hers was what could best be described as shabby without the chic, Edward's was perfect, she was convinced an interior designer must have done it; it was just too good and looked expensive. But the most surprising thing was the many candles that were strewn across every available space.

"Here sit down," he offered. Then he turned his back to her, grabbed a white t-shirt and put it on.

"Could I get you a drink?"

"Please," she smiled up at him.

Sitting down in front of her was a glass coffee table filled with books some looked like new release paperbacks you could find in Walmart and a few were older hardbacks. One in particular looked oldest with a title in French recognized Bella, though she couldn't read it. Next to the books were papers with text typed on it and things handwritten, it looked like corrections. It was a manuscript. On one of the corners, he had handwritten 'By E.A. Cullen'.

Just as she was about to look closer at the papers a hand surprised her, his eyes darkened when she looked up at him, they were heavy and there was a certain hollowness she could see, he hastily removed the papers not wanting this almost stranger to see the inner workings of his mind, so unpolished.

"I'm sorry." Bella blurted out. She shouldn't have looked, he had invited her into his home and she had been caught snooping, it was rude.

"That's ok, I just forget to put things away sometimes..." his voice sounded nonchalant as he walked towards one of desks on the other side of the room.

'_To stop people from snooping'_, she mentally finished his sentence. "You're a writer?" She called trying to defuse the awkwardness.

"I try, though I might fail." Edward mumbled.

"Pardon?" She hadn't heard him.

Walking towards her with two glasses filled with red wine, he sat down on the other side of the couch, putting some distance between them. "I'd like to try." He corrected himself.

"And how is that going?" She asked after taking a sip of the wine.

"Badly," he laughed bitterly, scratching the useless tattoo on his left arm.

He caught her eyes as she looked at his arm, holding her gaze. She knew she had to speak.

"What does it mean?"

"My tattoos?" He knew which one she meant, but tried to avoid the question regardless.

"Not all of them. Just that one." She pointed to his inner left forearm.

He could have shut her down, but something told him not to. He wanted to tell her more than what he was usually comfortable telling people.

"It's a muse." he told her, moving closer showing her the word '_Calliope' _written on the inside of his left arm

"A girlfriend?" It didn't surprise her that he had a girlfriend. _'Look at him, of course he has a girlfriend, the ink only adds to his appeal'_, she thought.

The corner of his mouth twitched, and then he shook his head. "No, it's the name of one of the Greek muses."

"Oh," She responded looking down at her glass, not wanting to reveal anymore of her small town ignorance. Fork was as far from culture as you could get and her knowledge of Greek myth was basic at best.

"The muse of what?"

"Epic poetry."

"Epic, huh?" she teased him as she put her glass down.

"That's the plan." he smiled back at her.

The continued talking about his work, though she noticed he was reticent in actually going into too much detail about what the plot of his story. He told her of his inspiration and she discovered they shared a love of many of the same books.

"Now you know what I do. What is it you do?" Edward didn't want the attention her dark eyes were fixing on him off, so he tried distracting her. But to his surprise her words only pulled him deeper in, searching something he realized he might have found with the beautiful and intriguing girl in front of him.

"Well I'm not as lucky as you to be able to be idle all day." She was referring to the large trust fund he had told her he was living off of in order to afford to write full time. "I actually have a real job." She voice full of false bravado only making his smile wider.

"And what's this _real_ job then?"

"I'm a teacher at an Elementary School not far from here."

"Why do you teach?" It was an odd question to ask. They way he phrased it was peculiar, she hadn't been asked like that before. _Why she became a teacher, what she liked about teaching or disliked_, people often asked, but never simply why she taught.

"I want to make a difference with the kids, even if it's small. If it's for the better I will know it's been worth my while." She said blushing at the honest and idealistic answer she gave because it was the truth.

He had no response for her words; so instead, he grasped her hand softly, looking at their fingers automatically intertwining. Her hand seemed to respond on its own, wanting to feel Edwards fully.

Then he softly said. "That's pretty incredible."

"Incredibly stupid?" she asked self deprecatingly.

His voice clear and honest he looked at her, moving closer, something about her was magnetic, he could feel it. No, more than feel it. It was _something_.

"No, just incredible."

As they kissed, Bella thought of two things. First, that she didn't want him to stop. And second, that what he made her feel in the small moments she had had with him during this dark night, made her want to act crazily, abandoning rationality in order to follow him in the search of the source of her attraction to him.

He expected her to pull away, after all they were strangers and he had only a few weeks ago heard what her mother had to say about him. Though his lips left her mouth they didn't leave her skin, continuing down her throat, peppering it with kisses. He took his own t-shirt of considering it unnecessary, but mostly he wanted her to see him, really see him. Bravery or insanity seized him and he stood up, holding his hand out to her he beckoned her to follow him.

"Come."

She placed her hand in his; following as he led her to his bedroom, but before she could really take the surroundings in, his lips met hers. All she really saw was candles surrounding the bed on every available surface, the luminosity highlighting the dark twisting patterns of his many tattoos. Snaking his arms around her and then moving her backwards, she gripped his arms to steady herself until she reached the bed and lay down, him crawling up her body to resume his kisses.

Suddenly he stopped meeting her eyes asking if he could continue as his fingers reached the edge of her t-shirt. Instead of answering his unspoken question, her hands gripped where his were and helped him remove the t-shirt leaving her bare, she wasn't wearing a bra.

"Beautiful. Perfection." The words came out instinctually and his hands touched her, his gaze never leaving hers as he kneaded her breasts. With pleasure radiating through her body, she closed her eyes, until he started kissing her throat and then finally her breasts. He kissed her softly tasting the unblemished flesh, nothing marking it. And Edward wanted nothing other than to be the one to mark her. His touch would be an invisible ghost tattoo on her only for him to know and her to feel.

Before the true pleasure could radiate through her, he left her at the cusp, not allowing her to fall.

"Please," were the first words she uttered, he smiled at her desperate tone, kissing her swollen lips soft he shook his head while at the same time his hand slid downwards over her belly, finally reaching the destination her wanted. Softly he circled her clit as his tongue massaged hers, moaning simultaneously she noticed her body rocking against his hand, she needed more but some reason he wasn't giving it to her.

She could feel herself reaching higher but just then his hand and left her, opening her eyes she was about to speak. But he never gave her enough time as he roughly peeled the black leggings and her cotton panties off her, discarding them on the floor. And then he tasted her. This was what he truly wanted to give her as his tongue teased her, the quiet girl he had watched before, and as it turned out, she wasn't so quiet. The loud moans echoed through the candle filled darkness and Bella couldn't stop her reaction even if she wanted to. Her hands roamed the bed as the torturing pleasure ebbed and finally flowed into her so she gripped the bed sheet with her fists.

He finally moved from between her legs, slowly crawling up her body, then looking down at her. He couldn't contain the wolfish grin which appeared but Bella only smiled slightly. Her eyes were bright, cheeks flushed and, like before, the gaze utterly captivating.

"_Not enough!" _Bella felt rather than thoughts so her hands reached his jeans button she softly spoke, unsure. "Can I?"

"Don't ask, just _do_." Edward commanded, swallowing as her delicate fingers opened the button and slowly pulled the zipper down. Then, instead of only pushing the jeans down, she also included his boxers. He helped her take them off, closing her eyes as he slowly kissed her, his hand running down her side finally lifting her leg, hitching it round his hip. She felt him, he wasted no time, giving her no warming, filling her completely and she relished in it. And the sensation was shared and he let her envelope him, her fingernails scratching down his back at every time he filled her to the brim, her touch leaving a mark he knew he could keep after she left him.

Slowly retreating, he entered her again and again; she instantly picked up his rhythm. The intrusion forgotten, it became a gift, once again filling her with pleasure. As they fluidly moved as one, it all transformed into a pleasurable blur. Everything forgotten, Forks and its restraints, judgment and ignorance. All that remained was Edward. Who she just gave her a piece of herself she never knew she needed, that night. She shook and her breath hitched as the bliss filled her, seconds later, she could feel his arms shaking slightly as he followed behind her in ecstasy.

Their chests rose and sank as they came down from the delight, his entire weight was on her and she didn't want it any other way. He hoped some of the light that he knew filled her, had at least left a glimmer in him now, the hollowness gone. That was the only thought he could think, all the rest was simply feeling, but it was indescribable.

"You never told me you name?" Were the first words she uttered to him after she had sufficiently caught her breath.

"What?" Her question confused him.

"Your name?"

"It's Edward. But I think you already know that, Bella." He smiled at her, pushing a lock of her hair behind her ear. "Paper thin walls remember?" He knew that they had probably heard more than the others daily life through the wall separating their two apartments, and he knew she knew.

"I just wanted to be conventional." She whispered.

"I don't think anything about us is conventional, so you might want to forget about that." But he humored her anyway. "So what's your name?"

"Isabella, but everyone calls me Bella."

Her fingers were following the intricate pattern of one of the tattoos on his upper arm. She thought she could lie there forever, learning the miles of ink covering his beautiful body. It seemed almost magical, the candlelight illuminating his pale body in contrasts to the dark patterns, words and figure_. "I'd study them all if he'd let __m__e.",_ she thought.

"What would you say if I had a tattoo of you?" He had watched her fingers roaming on her shoulder and chest, not disturbing. _"What does she see?" _He wondered, though he didn' dare ask, just yet at least.

"Of me?" The surprise evident in her voice.

"Well, a representation of you."

"That's crazy, we've only just met. Edward tattoos are permanent."

He laughed at her tone. She sounded as if she was telling him something she assumed he didn't know.

"Really? I had no idea." He mocked her as she blushed.

"You know what I mean," she grumbled embarrassed looking away from him. Wanting to look into her eyes he rolled them over she was on her back, him over her holding each of her hands in his, above her head.

Looking straight into her brown eyes he spoke.

"Yes, Bella, I know what you mean. But isn't life permanent? Aren't all the moments we live permanent? They're still on us, still marked on our bodies, minds even souls. Regardless of ink, I see the ink as a reminder of what matters most to me, an expression of sorts."

"I guess that makes sense," she responded. Looking up at him, his words put her in awe of him, but that also made her want him, to claim him further. So his words could sink into her and tell him what she thought of him with her body, the only way she knew how the words she wanted to tell him didn't seem to exist in her vocabulary right now.

Feeling her tilting her pelvis towards him he knew exactly what she wanted, it was just what he needed, her legs locked around her waist and he found her. This time it was slow and appreciating.

Sunrise in the city woke them up and Edward got out of bed after putting his black boxers on, _Calvin Klein_, Bella noted as he walked towards the window, picking up a cigarette pack and a lighter. Leaning out of the window he looked out remembered something he had heard once before _'__Write only what you know, otherwise you're a fraud'_. Hearing that, Edward had though he didn't know anything, so how could he ever write anything worth of value. But as he took the first drag of the cigarette he knew, he knew. It was what he had been waiting for. This. She was his _Calliope_.

Looking at the man she had just had sex with. No, it was more. She had made love to him, without knowing it at the time, but now she knew. Taking one of the white sheets with her as she got up from the bed, she tied it over her chest like a towel, to cover up. Walking towards him she studied the various tattoos on his back, some were symbols but there was one piece of text. She started placing feather light kisses on his back, her arms encircling his waist.

"Hi," he greeted her after exhaling the smoke, looking out towards the now light filled city.

"Hi," she responded back her voice just as quiet as his was. The she looked at the words and read them out loud.

"_I shall be telling this with a sigh_

_Somewhere ages and ages hence:_

_Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,_

_I took the one less traveled by,_

_And that has made all the difference."_

She recognized it immediately, "_The Road Not Taken_. Robert Frost." She said. "It's my favorite of his poems," she confessed.

"Mine too." He smiled though she couldn't see it. Then he confessed also "I'm on that road right now."

"So am I." She whispered back.

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><p><strong>Please leave a review.<strong>


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